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Our trek started after lunch at 7752ft at the trailhead and we would spend the night at Forest Camp at 9,222ft. The half day hike would be a warm-up for the more strenuous days to come and would let the Kiliwarriors understand our abilities. The afternoon took us through montagne forest and mild elevation gains. The steepest slope challenges were the downhill parts that were slippery from recent rains. Thankfully it didn’t rain during the hike. In fact we didn’t have any significant rain during the whole trek. We’d stop every hour or so along the way for everyone to catch up and drink some water.
The forest was as lush and green as you would imagine it, with many different plants and vines and many colorful but very small flowers. We saw relatives of our garden begonias and impatiens. There were blue and colobus monkeys in the trees but they usually fled after the first in our group passed through. Since Trish and George and I were in the back I didn’ t see them that day.
I was surprised at not having seen a mosquito since we had arrived. It must have been some combination of weather and the 100% Deet repellent we were all wearing. I over-dressed in long sleeves and a repellent-soaked neck scarf fearing clouds of mosquitoes that never materialized. The pictures from this part of the hike make me look like some ancient African explorer.
 The Landcruisers came to a stop around noon at a wide part of the road, deep in the rain forest. Faraja, the 2nd guide, met us with his trademark smile, wider than the Serengeti, and told us to put on our gaiters, grab our packs and follow him down the road. The singing in the distance got louder as we approached, and we were soon in the midst of about 40 guides, porters, and cooks who were dancing and singing. They loosened us all up by singing our names and making us join the dancing. George has this on tape somewhere.
Kiliwarriors had set up lunch at a table in a clearing. This was the first of many great meals we would have on the trip. Soon after, we were ready to start. Wilbert gave us the lecture again about making sure we walked ‘pole, pole’ (slowly) and drank lots of water. We all posed for a group picture and set off in several small groups, each with a guide.
We met early for breakfast on Tuesday morning, loaded the jeeps, and drove off toward the mountain. There were several stops…first to buy water, and next at the entrance to Kilimanjaro Park to register. We had to show passports and sign in with Kiliwarriors. It is mandatory that you climb the mountain with licensed guides/porters.
The landscape changed, as we drove, from flat and dry to lush and green as we approached the rain forest at the foot of the mountain. On the plains, we got the first real sense of how massive and how high it is. You don’t get this sense from pictures. We all realized that this wasn’t going to be easy.
There are several standard routes to the summit. We were taking the longest and probably least traveled major one (Lemosho) in order to get the most acclimatization to altitude and give us the best chance of making it to the summit and to make camping in the crater at 18.5k ft reasonably safe. It was also considered to be very scenic. We had seven full days of hiking along with additional half days at the beginning and end.
At the park entrance it was amusing to see lots of blue monkeys in the trees. They were probably amused to see us too. After registering, we backtracked slightly and then took progressively smaller and worse roads toward the trailhead. The muddy, rutted road wound up, down, and around giving the Landcruisers their reason for being.
We had the rest of our day to ourselves. George, Trish and I tried to walk out from the hotel into town but we were descended on by local kids, selling things and asking for money. I’ve been in plenty of developing countries and this goes with the territory, but here it was the most intense I’d seen and also the most uncomfortable. This was the real Arusha. Looking around I saw we were the only tourists within eyesight. That explained some of it. I had wanted to quietly explore the town but that was going to be impossible so we gave up after 10 minutes and went back to the hotel. It turned out that Greg, Tony and Sean hired a local guy to fend off the other locals and they got a tour of Arusha. I didnt’ think of that.
The eight climbers had dinner together.
A good night’s sleep took me to morning. I had a view of Mt. Meru out my window. I wandered downstairs to find that we were in a beautiful hotel. The lobby had rich leather couches and chairs in small, interconnected sitting rooms. There were lush gardens outside. The breakfast buffet was impressive. It was also clear that we were not *really* in Arusha.
After breakfast we met Wilbert, the Tanzanian owner and manager of Kiliwarriors and also the lead guide on the trip. We also met Faraja and others who would be taking us on the trek. They came up to our rooms, inspected our equipment, and gave us instructions to be ready to leave at 7am the next day.
After lunch I wandered through the exquisite hotel gardens and soon met Raphael, the gardener, who was a Masai. He showed me around and told me his story. One interesting sight was the clock tower. The travel books all talked about it. It is halfway between Cairo and Capetown. He showed me the flowers he calls ‘yesterday, today and tomorrow’. They begin as purple, turn lighter, then go to white.
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Mt. Meru
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Garden walk
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Yesterday, today and tomorrow
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Raphael
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Clock Tower
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Trish & George
The flight to Amsterdam was uneventful. It was also uncomfortable. KLM had the least legroom of any large plane I’d ever been on. But no matter. Traveling with a backpack as carryon luggage is wonderful. Wearing hiking boots and safari pants is even better. Much better than wearing a suit and taking a briefcase.
Arriving way early in the morning (6 something) and having 5 hours to kill, I walked through every terminal and concourse in the airport. I had some espresso. I walked some more. An hour or so before flight time I went to our next terminal and found Trish and George waiting there. Getting to know them through this blog was really worthwhile when I got a big hug from Trish and a warm handshake from George. It’s like we’d know each other forever and the trip was just starting.
We talked for awhile and met some other people heading to Kilimanjaro with other outfitters. I was sitting next to a lady who was part of a Mountain Madness trip and she talked my ear off. I got up and walked around the airport some more for a break.
Our flight to Arusha was called and as we were assembling in line a guy asked me if I was part of the Kiliwarriors trip. It was Greg. He’d recognized me from the blog. I met his two friends Tony and Sean who were also on the trip.
We landed about 8pm in Arusha, made our way through customs, met Gideon from Kiliwarriors, and were driven 30 minutes to the Arusha Hotel. Great hotel! We met back downstairs about 9pm for dinner and ate outdoors on the balcony. During dinner Stefano came over and introduced himself. He and his friend Giuseppe were the the 7th and 8th members of our party. They had arrived a week or so before, intending to climb Oldonyo L’engai (another nearby mountain that is also an active volcano) to get acclimated, but it had erupted and made climbing it impossible. They had been hanging around the area ever since.
Everyone was now accounted for.
 Saturday September 1, and the trip begins. I remembered it was my mother’s birthday; she would have understood the adventure and been thrilled to hear every detail about it. She had taken a trip, on her own, to Hawaii back in the 1940s. Her diary is in one of the trunks at home. Good reading.
Rachel drove me to the airport to catch the KLM flight to Amsterdam. Long layover there (5 hours or so) before flying on to Kilimanjaro International Airport in Arusha. I think I took Friday off but that was it. Work had been very demanding from May 24th, the day we won the big contract, all the way through the end of August when we had a major review. Thinking of the trip had kept me going.
It was a quick drive to Dulles, a kiss good-bye, and a look in Rachel’s eyes that told me she really didn’t understand why I was doing this but that it was OK as long as I came back in one piece. It had taken a long time to get her to that point.
This may be old stuff to you guys, but I wasn’t clear on how tipping our guides and assorted crew is supposed to work. So I asked Carol at Kiliwarriors for more info. I thought I’d post her reply here, in case anyone else wants to know:
Hi Tricia –
I hope you are doing well! Yes – we advise to bring up to $200 for tipping on the mountain and this is based on feedback from all of our previous clients. After nine days on the mountain there are a lot of close relationships that are formed! We try to make it easy for you – the guide on the last evening will give your group two envelopes – one for GUIDES and a second envelope marked CREW. The first envelope is for your climb group to put tips for the guide and assistant guide. The second envelope is for you and your group to put tips for the rest of the entire crew (cooks, porter, tent crew, etc.). The guide will later divide the crew tips to the various team members w/o you and your group having to do this.
Kind Regards,
Carol
First, all our best wishes for a speedy recovery to Rick Brown, part of our original trek group, who reinjured his knee while training for the trip in Colorado. I’ve enjoyed getting to know Rick through this site. He even found a clock that runs on Swahili time (link is elsewhere on the site, I think).
So now we’ve apparently combined with the other Kiliwarriors group. The more the merrier.
Hello to Greg, Sean, Anthony, Stefano, and Guiseppe. Looking forward to hiking with you. Please feel free to write some posts on this site before the trip and tell us something about yourselves.
Jon
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